\u201cFear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Christmas\u2019s blatant consumerism and feel-good motto of \u201cbuy that something special for the ones you love\u201d has watered down its significance. The message has shifted focus from God\u2019s miracle of the incarnation to trinkets, treats, and tribal rituals of the season. What gets lost in the commercialism is the Christ of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, Easter has not escaped a similar fate. Society has turned the shouts of \u201cChrist is Risen. He is Risen, indeed!\u201d and the focus on Christ’s redemption of a world lost in sin to a celebration of the passage of the dreariness of winter and the rite of spring. Lost in that transition is the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. The proclamation from the Savior that, \u201cIt is Finished!\u201d, the realization of the soldier, \u201cThis truly was the Son of God\u201d, the joy of Easter morning, \u201cthe Tomb is Empty. And Christ Is Risen\u201d have been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the case of secular Christmas and Easter, you\u2019ll have no problem finding decorations and greeting cards. Many of them feature the embodiments of the seasons, such as Santa and the Easter Bunny. And symbols of the season, scents of pine trees, or, my favorite, chocolate bunnies (or chocolate of any kind, for that matter). We could celebrate that at least these celebrations have high name-recognition and in the past have led people who never darken our church doors back to us on these two occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Pentecost is different. Pentecost still belongs to the church. Pentecost has not gone commercial \u2026 yet! You will be hard-pressed to find a rack of Pentecost cards in a drugstore. Fortunately, there are not Holy Spirit dove chocolates. I can\u2019t imagine the Dove ever competing with Santa and the Easter bunny.\u00a0 It is unlikely that we in the church will ever feel the need to remind each other to keep Pentecost in our hearts like we usually have to with Christmas. Pentecost is ours alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is no accident that Pentecost is also known as the Jewish holiday \u201cthe Feast of Weeks.\u201d It is essentially a harvest festival. The Feast of Weeks was the time in ancient Israel when the first grain harvest came in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we examine the significance of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell upon the church, it is this great harvest of new believers. The good news of the gospel brought many to faith and caused them go out into the world bearing these newfound fruits of the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most striking thing about this verse is the phrase, \u201cThey were all together in one place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So much has happened in a short period to the disciples. They had been all together in the upper room when Jesus broke the bread, shared the cup and gave a new and deeper significance to the Passover Seder meal. We then witness how the news of Jesus\u2019 arrest and crucifixion scattered the faithful disciples and all His hundreds of followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disciples\u2019 grief over the loss of their teacher, shepherd, and mentor has now brought them together again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have witnessed in your church how funerals often do this. The loss of a loved one connects a once widely dispersed family and gathers them together for mutual support and remembrances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then came for the disciples the wonder and comfort of the resurrection. When Mary Magdalene, in John\u2019s gospel, runs back to tell the other disciples the good news notice there\u2019s no mention of her going from house to house in seeking them out. She knows just where to find them. The disheartened group is collected together in one place supporting each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They now move from the highs of the resurrection to the uncertain future of Christ ascension into heaven. They may have thought that with that event it was \u201cgame over.\u201d Last out of the World Series, time to go home and live in the memory of all we have seen and heard. What more could God possibly have in store for them? It was like the silence following the grand finale of a fireworks display. What could they possibly do at that moment except fold the chairs and go home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is most certainly not<\/em> what the disciples do! \u201cWhen the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.\u201d Why? What were they hoping for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe the clue is found in the mission Jesus had left with them before He went to assume His rightful place on the throne of heaven. In Matthew 28, also known as the Great Commission, it says, \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all nations \u2026.\u201d The full weight and meaning of this get lost in the English translations. However, in the original Greek the verb \u201cmake disciples\u201d is plural. Jesus isn\u2019t commanding them to go out like marbles and individually witness to everyone they meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Too often, we are tempted as churches to send out people out with this charge, \u201cYou go and make disciples, and good luck with that!\u201d No, Jesus is commanding them to come together and, as one body, the Church is to devise a strategy for sharing the gospel with the lost and broken world. <\/p>\n\n\n\nContained in this Pentecost story are some powerful images:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Pentecost Is a Community Event<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Optics of the Great Commission.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n